“N-No you’re not,” I said, scrambling out of bed and to my feet. I thanked the heavens then that Zayne was a heavy sleeper. I wouldn’t know how to explain the stranger in my room, especially since I still didn’t know his name.

“Really?” he asked with a hint of an attitude. “Because it sure seemed like it.” His jaw clenched, his arms tightly folded across his chest. I walked over to him and was about to place my hand on his shoulder, but he grabbed my hand in midair. I gasped at the sudden pain traveled up my arm, and he responded by caressing my hand between his. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I don’t like to be touched. You should ask first.”

“I’m sorry,” I replied, a little embarrassed. He still held onto my hand like he was examining it.

“Your hands are so small,” he said softly before he cleared his throat and dropped my hand, probably embarrassed that he had said that aloud. Little did he know that I had thought the same just the night before. “Are you not afraid of me anymore?” he asked.

“I’m hoping you’ll stick to your promise to not hurt me.” I still felt like I knew him, but I couldn’t see his face and he was so very vague about everything that I was starting to think what I was feeling was wrong.

“Who is he?” he asked, nodding towards my bed.

“My best friend.” I smiled. “His name is Zayne. You’re not jealous, are you?” I jeered trying to lighten his mood.

“Maybe,” he said. “I have to go. I just wanted to check on you for tonight. We don’t want those nightmares to come back, do we?” He asked. How did he know about my nightmares? He brushed my hair out of my face and turned me around so I was looking at my sleeping best friend instead of him. I started to feel a wave of warmth, then I was cold. He was gone.

“Nina?” a groggy voice called me out of my thoughts. “Nina, come back to bed,” Zayne said. Not one to argue, especially since I was very tired, I crawled back in beside him and fell asleep.

My alarm went off and I didn’t move an inch. I was conscious, but I couldn’t seem to move my body. My mother used to say that my mind was awake, but my body was so tired that it was not awake yet. I thought it was odd. My alarm stopped abruptly, and I felt a warm hand on the small of my back.

“Wake up, Nina,” Zayne purred into my ear. “I’ll drive you to school if you get up.”

“Mmhm,” was all I could say as I opened my eyes to see Zayne with water dripping down his torso and a towel wrapped around his waist. “Gosh, Z, put some clothes on,” I complained, dragging the sheet over my head.

Suddenly it was ripped off and goose bumps appeared on my skin from the loss of warmth. Reaching out blindly, I tried to grasp something, anything to pull over my body that was now bare to the nip of my bedroom. “Get up,” Zayne demanded. “You’re going to be late if you don’t get up now.”

“I hate you,” I muttered and grabbed a towel on my way to the bathroom. Ugh, I felt like hell. My neck felt like I had slept in the most awkward way all night. I took a cold shower to wake myself up first and brushed my hair when I came out of the bath.

“You have twenty minutes, Nina! I’m going downstairs,” Zayne called on his way out the door.

I went back into my bedroom and dressed in my uniform. I packed some clothes for cheer practice after school, did my hair, and went downstairs.

“Mornin’, sunshine,” Leanne chirped.

“Morning,” I replied mid yawn, walking around her in the kitchen to make myself a bowl of cereal. I just sat down to eat it when I realized Cristóbal and Zayne weren’t around. “Where are Cris and Zayne?” I asked with my mouth full.

“Cris wasn’t feeling well this morning, so I’m making breakfast for him before I go to work. I’m hoping he actually eats it. Zayne is waiting for you in his car. He looks even cuter than when he left.” I gave her a look but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “They changed my shift again so I’m working later, unless they send me home early,” Leanne informed me.

“Cool,” I said. My head started to hurt more, and I lost my appetite.

“Crap, Nina, you’re late!” Leanne exclaimed. At the same time, Zayne walked in and gave me a ‘What the hell?’ look. Kissing Leanne on the cheek, I ran out of the house with Zayne who, for the entire car ride, gave me a lecture on time management.

By the time I got to school, the tardy bell had already rung, and I knew I had to go to the office yet again. When I got there, Shelby was standing there in her cheerleading outfit leaning over the secretary’s table. Wearing it around without reason was a violation of the school’s dress code, but I was pretty sure some of the male teachers were too busy looking up her skirt to report her.

“You do know that you don’t have to wear your cheer uniform to school when all we have is practice, right?” I said to her as if we didn’t both know the rules already.

She turned to me. “You see, unlike you, I can pull this off,” she said pointing to her cropped uniform top and her miniskirt. “And I like flaunting what I have. Where are your clothes?” she laughed.

I looked at the one bag I had. Backpack? Check. Gym bag? Crap! I must’ve left it in Zayne’s car. There was no way I would wear my uniform to a practice session. I let out a long sigh, ignored Shelby, and asked the secretary for a late pass. I headed to my class only to be smacked in the head with a binder as soon as I sat in my seat.

“What the hell, Natalia?”

“You have been treating me like crap for the past two days,” she said angrily.

“I’m sorry. I’ve just been… busy. I’ll fill you in between classes,” I promised.

“You better,” she warned.

The bell rung for the end of Homeroom, and when I was walking out of class, I bumped into someone and fell backwards. I winced and looked up to see the brick wall of a person I walked into. It was Daniel. Now that I thought about it, he hadn’t been in homeroom. He held out his hand to help me up, but he pulled me up with so much force that I was jerked right up against his chest. Thankfully, he immediately wrapped his arm around my waist to steady me.

He was in his uniform today. I’d got used to him wearing full black attire for the past two days. He looked so different in his white school shirt and tie. His tie hung loosely around his neck, and his shirt wasn’t tucked into his pants, but I couldn’t imagine him sporting the uniform any other way.

“Sorry about that,” he mumbled. I could have sworn there was a faint blush on his cheeks. “How are you feeling? Is your headache gone?”

I figured he was also referring to my stand-offish attitude the day before, so I said, “I’m fine. All gone. Sorry for acting like that yesterday. The past few days haven’t exactly been a walk in the park.” His hand was still wrapped around me.

“It’s okay. I get it.” Natalia cleared her throat and Daniel let me go. “Have you seen Damian?” he asked, peering into the classroom.

I hadn’t seen Damian either.

“If you see him, can you let him know that I’m looking for him?”

“Of course.”

He muttered to himself, turning to walk down the hallway.

“What was that?” Natalia asked me when he was gone.

“Me agreeing to help him find his brother,” I said in a ‘duh’ tone.

“No, I meant with you and him. What was that?” she asked. I could tell she was trying to hold back a smile. I shook my head and walked off towards my next class with her trailing behind me. “You can’t tell me that you didn’t realize the way he was looking at you,” she kept saying.

I had no idea what she was talking about.

The day went by agonizingly slow, and I never saw the twins at class or at lunch. I told Natalia about Cris starting school. I didn’t think I should’ve mentioned the whole mystery-guy-visiting-me-at-night thing. She would give a lecture about it that I wasn’t ready to hear. Seeing that she had no filter, she wouldn’t be too shy to tell me how crazy I was for inviting a complete stranger into my home.

After school, I went to the gym to meet with the squad. I didn’t have my clothes, but just in case they added something new to the routine, I wanted to be there. I had to wait for Zayne to pick me up anyways. As soon as they started warming up, my phone vibrated.

Where are you? I have your clothes and I’m in the parking lot. –Zayne

I’m coming out. –Nina

I ran out into the parking lot and saw Zayne on his phone with my gym bag in his hands. “Thank you!” I yelled and jumped in his arms. He managed to catch me even though I caught him off guard.

“Calm down. It’s just clothes,” he said. “How long is practice?” he asked. “Do you need me to stay or…?” he trailed off.

“You can stay. It won’t take long.” I held his hand and was about to drag him inside when I saw Daniel and Damian pull up in their car. I watched as they both came out and walked over to me and Zayne.

“Hey,” they said together. I smiled and shook my head. It amused me the way they glared at each other after they said something simultaneously.

“Hey. Damian, Daniel, meet Zayne,” I said introducing them. “What are you doing back here?” I asked the twins. Daniel glanced down at mine and Zayne’s intertwined hands and raised his eyebrows in question.

“Danny wanted to watch cheerleading,” Damian said messing up his brother’s hair then dodging out of his way as Daniel moved to slap him. I stifled a giggle at their playfulness. “Guys can be on the squad, can’t they? Are you on the squad?”

“Yes to both,” I confirmed.

“Come on then,” Damian said, and we all headed into the gym.